September 1994Representing modern Ireland in 1994, three ruddy-cheeked Dublin children are featured with a pony at a time when cars still dodged horse-drawn carts in the country's capital. Sam Abell's photographs of shifting Irish life and storied landscapes capture the island's moral and economic evolution.Photograph by Sam Abell

December 1995—Honoring Jane GoodallRecognizing 35 years of pioneering work, National Geographic features primatologist Jane Goodall on its cover for the second time since 1965, when she was depicted in an illustration. In 1995, Goodall is presented with the Society's Hubbard Medal as a tribute to her influential study of chimpanzees, described by former Society President Gilbert M. Grosvenor as the "longest continuous field research ever conducted on a wild animal."Photograph by Michael Nichols

June 1996Cape York Peninsula, one of Australia's last frontiers and home to several hundred endangered plant and animal species, is profiled in this issue's cover story. The face of the continent's northern stronghold of native culture is an Aboriginal teenager wearing a mask of mud while swimming in a waterhole.Photograph by Sam Abell

December 1997Wild tigress Sita, cub gently in mouth, gets her close-up when National Geographic addresses the plight of her species' vanishing habitat and vulnerability to poachers. Unmanned remote cameras helped photographer Michael Nichols capture startling images of the endangered cats in their shrinking range. The issue features 45 pages of photos and maps and an account of Sita's years successfully breeding in the wild.Photograph by Michael Nichols

December 1998Continuing a tradition of bringing the world's most remarkable sites, no matter how remote, to National Geographic readers, the December 1998 issue features a look at the ancient city of Petra, the mysterious Nabataean capital carved into cliffs in the desert of present-day Jordan.Photograph by Annie Griffiths Belt

August 1999—Global CultureNear the end of the millennium, a mother and daughter are a study in contrasts as they represent the new global culture, the subject of this special issue that examines cultures emerging and vanishing amid the increased exchange of information, products, and ideas. This year is the last in which the magazine's cover still features a crown of laurels, the final remnant of the oak leaf border first introduced in 1910.Photograph by Joe McNally

April 2000A shot inside the notorious mouth of a great white shark is a fitting introduction to Jaws author Peter Benchley's feature article on the threats facing the surprisingly fragile predator. Twenty-five years after the box-office hit based on his novel terrified moviegoers, Benchley and photographer David Doubilet set out to portray the ocean's great hunters in a different light.Photograph by David Doubilet

May 2001Marco Polo likely encountered the forebears of this masked woman in Minab, Iran, during his journey east to the court of Kublai Kahn in the 13th century. In his three-part feature, Mike Edwards follows Marco's route through lands that still evoke the Venetian explorer's amazing finds.Photograph by Michael Yamashita

September 2002A meerkat pops up on National Geographic's cover after an international team discovers that the small, chatty mammals are among the most cooperative on Earth. The colorful close-ups illustrating the feature story show group members providing daycare, keeping sentinel, and sleeping in furry piles for warmth.Photograph by Mattias Klum

July 2003—Divided KoreaFifty years after the end of the Korean War, National Geographic goes inside the Demilitarized Zone, the cease-fire line where soldiers from north and south of the 38th parallel face off in a tense display of might and will—a reminder that a half century of fragile peace could be broken at any moment.Photograph by Michael Yamashita

February 2004Standing nearly nine feet tall, two male polar bears engage in play combat on the February 2004 cover. A photo spread within reveals the bears during their downtime: Unable to hunt seals and seal pups until the ice freezes solid in winter and spring, the bears live off fat reserves from July to November. With ice tending to melt earlier in the spring, the winter hunt grows urgent.Photograph by Norbert Rosing

June 2005King Tutankhamun leaves his tomb for the first time in almost 80 years to undergo a CT scan, a process that provides data for this forensic reconstruction of the boyish pharaoh's face. The scan—overseen by Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence—also offers clues about Tut's life and death.Photograph by Kenneth Garrett

July 2006—Panda, Inc.A year after his celebrated birth at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., panda cub Tai Shan appears on the cover of National Geographic with mother Mei Xiang. Unapologetic cuteness abounds on the pages within—something feature author Lynne Warren writes may, along with their persistent scarcity, largely contribute to the popularity of China's beloved bear.Photograph by Michael Nichols

June 2007This issue's icy blue pages profiling polar life and thawing glaciers communicate what is at stake as the climate warms. Photographer James Balog's startling survey on retreating ice presents visual evidence of changing conditions at the Poles and elsewhere around the globe.Photograph by James Balog

October 2008—Neanderthals RevealedThe face of a Neanderthal woman, part of a life-size reconstruction informed by fossil anatomy and ancient DNA, peers out from the past for the first time. DNA results suggest that Neanderthals and modern humans are separate species, and National Geographic explores who these close ancestors were and the question of why one group survived while the other perished.Photograph by Joe McNally